Boat Ramp Upgrades

[mrmoshe]

Good news for Raiders with boats.!!

Long Reef boat ramp is to get an upgrade finally!!!

Tunks Park Ramp to get a new pontoon.

Thanks to a NSW Maritime grant of $120,000, Warringah Council

will reconstruct and repair the boatramp at Fisherman's Beach, Collaroy

which has been one of the worst (and most dangerous) in Sydney.

No word on when work will begin.

Tunks Park boat Ramp at Northbridge is also to get a new $295,000 Pontoon

The grants formed part of a $3.55 million package from the State Government to encourage the construction and upgrade of boating facilities across NSW.

Sydney Harbour will get improvements to the value of $1.31 million.

Projects range from dinghy storage racks and boat ramps to jetties, pontoons and vessel sewage pumpout facilities.

Great to see the NSW Govt. spend some of our cash in worthwhile causes.

Cheers,

Pete.

ps: I don't know if anyone picked it up, but the date on that press release about Tunks

is a tad out!

Maybe 3009 is when they will send the cheque.

Cheers,

Pete.

[pelican]

Any ideas on the design at tunks. I know they were going to dredge with most of the money and just put same crappy design pontoon there.

They could do so much better

Anyone got good photos of a better design from elsewhere as councils and whoever aren't that good at it. I like the ones over in SA. Will have to get a photo together

Perhaps a pontoon either side so you can just pull up get trailer and walk it on?

Kayakers could use it as well and the other side of the pontoon for drop offs and collection

[Guest Big-Banana]

Any idea what's happening at Longy in terms of extent of works?

Edited February 14, 2009 by Big-Banana

[mrmoshe]

Not sure Anthony about the extent of the improvements, but I feel it won't

be a huge makeover.

Looking at the Warringah Council website, it appears that it may be perhaps widened and extended to minimise the trailer incidents which are common at this ramp.

2008-2009 projects:

Extend and repair Fisherman’s Beach boat

ramp to minimise boat trailer incidents

$120,000

I can't find any other details as yet.

Cheers,

Pete.

[pelican]

Pretty tough call with that ramp due to it's exposure to swell and sand movement and a constant supply of slime.

Don't think there would ever be enough money for a groyne or if it would work. Widening it - well I tell you even if it was 3 lanes wide I would always launch single file unless a millpond as you just can't tell what other boats will do.

It is just a ramp that needs to be respected , conditions watched craefully and and I'm not sure what could make it massively safer other than pressure washing it every low tide to ensure traction so no boat dragging your 4wd backwards. Retrieve is fine of the sand but launch is where i have seen all the comedy and tragedy. Only used it a few times and length of ramp was the least of our worries. IQ or experience test would stop more instances up there.

Some money spent at Palm beach on the beach launch there on the inside would be a safer option but where the hell would you park after launch. Residents up there don't want it and and I don't really blame them.

For the $70 in boat and towing fuel to go to another inner harbour ramp unless perfect condition at longreef would be $70 well spent if you lived there unless you have a boat small enough to man handle from sand into the water and are happy to do a beach retrieve off the sand.

Not a place to launch the sports cruiser however I have seen it tried and it brought tears to my eyes. Something about that scraping noise and smacking on trailer rollers....eeeerk

Edited February 16, 2009 by pelican

[mrmoshe]

I gave Warringah Council a call and left a message for whoever is in charge

of this upgrade project for Fisherman's Beach, Long Reef.

I just got a call back from the (name supplied) in the Council and put a few questions to him on what the extent of the works would be.

His reply was the following:

They have a few concept drawings which were submitted to Maritime for the grant, but there now needs to be a lot of detailed design work to be done.

The $120k from Maritime is to be matched $ for $ from Council funds for a total of $240k.

The works will consist of repair and reconstruct the top part of the ramp where it is cracked

and also extending the ramp further into the water. He thinks some slight gradient change as well.

It will remain as a single lane ramp.

All works are being planned for the 2009/2010 year and will take place probably in the winter.

I gave him Pel's suggestion of building a groyne to protect it from the no'r easter and he said the council

only own above the waterline and that is Maritime's territory.

I also asked if the location could be moved further around the beach towards the point where it is more protected and he argued it would be too expensive and they would need to make new access etc.

The Warringah fishing club was consulted heavily with Council in the planning stage, so hopefully they will have given some good input on this ramp.

He agreed that it is a terrible ramp at the best of times and he has seen some doozie launch/retrieve errors

at that ramp. They are also thinking of putting better signage up to warn of the dangers in rough weather.

They researched the ramp and it seems to have been first installed in the early 1900's and is fairly

well constructed.

So there you have it..not a radical rebuild, but rather a refurbishment.

Cheers,

Pete.

[Dalucius]

Will we see it in our life time?

$295,780 for pontoon at Tunks Park

February 3, 3009

Notice the typo on the Media Release.